Strong Winds
by something like human
Summary: Part5 of Storm Arc. WuFei has a new mission which is perhaps the most difficult one he has ever had. And on top of everything else, he is confused as to what is going on between himself and Duo. shounen ai warning


Title: Strong Winds 

Author: Something Like Human 

Feedback: somethinglikehuman1@excite.com 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. 

Rating: PG13 

Warnings: Definite Shounen ai (5 +2), adult themes, possible OOCness, language 

A/N: The Storm Arc is still mostly based on the manga. I have now seen the first 15 episodes of GW on dvd. (thanks juu-sissy) But I still wanna stick to what I know, so I'll just say that I'm going off the manga. 

Note to storyline: This is the fifth part of the Storm Arc. I believe that each fic can be read separately so if you haven't read the previous four (Thunder, Dark Clouds, Rain, & Lightning), then you will still be able to understand this. Then after you read this, go back and read the others! 

Back to WuFei's POV.

"Here, I figured you could use this, Fei."

I looked up at Duo when he spoke.  He was holding the ugliest teddy bear in existence: A greenish-brown furred bear named Thunder.  My heard lightened slightly at the gesture.  It was more of a silent code between us with that bear.  If something bad was going on with one of us, the other would give them the bear or offer to stand in for the fuzzy object.  Duo always knew when I needed the comfort only that gesture could provide and I was grateful for it this time.

I took Thunder in my arms and scooted over slightly to give him room to sit down beside me.  I was in my room at one of Quatre's sister's homes on Earth.  I was seated on the floor with my back against the bed so that I could look out the window.  There was less than a meter between the bed and the wall but it was ample room or me to sit like I was.   Duo squeezed himself down next to me.  I could feel his body heat radiating off of him; it soothed me in that it reminded me that I was not alone.

"I about choked when Heero explained the mission. I don't think they have a clue what they're asking you to do."

I just shrugged to Duo in response.  It did not matter if Yuy and his Doctor J or any of the others knew, the directors were explicit and I was the only one who could carry out the mission.  It seemed that through some clerical error, probably because of the Alliance attack at the tie, there were no records of Long Meilan's death.  It appeared that no one outside of her family knew that she was dead.  Because of her being the heir to the Long clan, she would have as much political power as Relena without the notoriety.  This was because of the Long clan generally avoiding Earthside politics.  Now the real kicker to this was that because I was married into her family instead of the other way around, my name was not recorded as her husband.  The doctors thought that this worked out well enough so that they could have someone impersonate the "Chinese Princess" to get into the social circle of Earth's Politicians and do some spy work.  It was quite obvious who would become Meilan.

"Heero thought you were so upset because you didn't want to dress like a woman," Duo continued chuckling weakly.

"It was harder to get Meilan into a dress than it would be to get Yuy into one.  She did not think she could fight in one.  At our wedding, she even wore pants under her ceremonial robes."

"She sounds like she was a real spitfire, Fei."

"She was," I sighed. I though that there was just no way I could do this mission.  It just seemed wrong to me.  I told Duo as much.

"Nah, you're lookin' at it all wrong," he replied.  "She wanted to be a part of the war, wanted to help her people. Now you have an opportunity to let her do that.  You already fight in her name, so this time you'll just be fighting as her."  
  


I looked at him incredulously.  He was not perturbed and continued on.  "She fought when you couldn't – you weren't ready yet.  Now you are doing the same for her.  You are fighting because she can't.  She deserves this honor.  Besides, from what you told me, she would think it was pretty cool to be a spy."

One thing I have learned over the course of my friendship with the American pilot is that often his twisted, rambling logic makes an awful lot of sense.  He was right; I owed it to my Nataku to do this in her name.  That and she would have loved to be a spy… but only if she got to fight also. 

"Alright Duo, I will do it," I agreed.  "What do I need to do?"

"Good for you, Fei!" He replied hugging me quickly before sobering.  "Heero wants to brief us some more on the parameters and Quat wants to help with the disguise.  Let's go see what those two are up to now."  
  


***

"Chang, as I said before, you are to be Long Meilan – born August 6th, 181, age 15…"

"Wait a sec, Heero," Duo interrupted.  "You have her age wrong.  She'd only be 14 if she was born in 181."

"Not by Chinese tradition," I explained.  "We count the time spent in the womb as one's first year of life and our chronological age changes on New Year's Day not on our birthday."

"Wow, different.  So that would make you…"

"By Western standards, I won't be 14 until later this year."

"Shit man! You're only 13?!"

"Yes."

"So you were 2 before your first birthday?"

"Yes, Maxwell," I replied with annoyance. I knew I was younger than them.  Well at least Quatre, who knew his actual birthday, and Heero who was born in 180 or so he said.  Trowa said that he though he may be older than rest of the pilots but could not know for sure.  Duo admitted that he did not know how old he was.  The malnutrition in his early childhood made taking a guess almost impossible.  G had told him that he could be anywhere from 13 to 17.

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Heero started glaring at Duo.  He then explained that I was to attend a party for foreign dignitaries in North America.  Quatre would be there as himself- the Winner Heir not the terrorist.  Relena Dorlian would be there representing Sanq.  Heero was asked to be her escort.  The three of us were to gather as much information as possible.  I would be the best hope of hearing things since I was not already known to side with either the alliance or the resistance. 

"Now for your cover, Chang," Yuy explained.  "We have the only video clip available of the girl.  We need to study it so you can look like her and sound as close to her as possible."

I gasp in horror as the video Yuy displayed on his lap top.  It was my wedding in all its gory detail.  Things had progressed well until Meilan and I were allowed to speak to each other.  I could see from this perspective how immature we acted then at the insults we spat at each other.  I was pulled from my contemplation of the past by Winner's shocked voice. 

"That's you, Wu Fei!"

That caused Yuy to look closer and Duo to put a comforting hand on my shoulder.  Quatre looked at me for a moment before speaking.  

"I didn't recognize you with your hair down and glasses on.  But even though I don't speak Chinese, I'd recognize you yelling anywhere!" The Arabian stopped for a moment looking like his brain was catching up to his mouth.  "Wait a minute! She's your wife? When you told me you had been married, you hadn't said to whom!"

"Yes, Winner," I replied reluctantly.  "Long Meilan was my wife…my Nataku."

"I'm so sorry!" The blonde looked very contrite.  "This mission has to be horrible for you."

"Since you knew her, Chang," Yuy stated.  "It should be easier to impersonate her."

*** 

A week later found Duo Maxwell and me getting prepared for the party.  Duo's job was to monitor the bugs the three of us would be wearing. He also rigged up an earpiece that I could wear discreetly and he could talk to me from his hiding place. He was also patched into the security system so he would be able to see what was going on.

We had spent the previous week working on my cover.  Quatre and his sister whose house we were staying at helped in finding clothing for me and showing me how to apply make-up like I was a damn woman.  Since Meilan would have been in the midst of puberty the fact that I lacked breasts was no problem.  The dress I was to wear had a flowing skirt to hide my more masculine hips and other areas.

That dress was just too much.  It was red with gold trim and I thought it was way too short. It was above my knees! But Quatre insisted that it would make me look more feminine.  It had a high mandarin collar and gold embroidered frog buttons adoring it.  The sleeves were snug and stopped right be low my elbows. I always thought my wrists and hands were very thin and small but those sleeves made them look almost delicate.

I would not let them cut bangs in my hair.  That was too permanent a change right now.  They did however trim a bit of the front to give the illusion that I had been growing my bangs out to match the rest of my hair.  Quatre told me that I was as touchy as Duo was with his hair as he snipped it.

The night of the party, Duo helped me prepare.  We were alone and just going about our business quietly.  As he leaned in to put the eye liner on me, since I just could not bring myself to put a pointy object near my eyes, he stopped and stared.  As I waited for him to continue, I noticed how close he was to my face.  I could make out a few freckles splayed across the bridge of his nose and cheeks.  He had been spending a lot of time in the sun instead of the artificial light of the colonies.  He was slightly tanner than he was when I first met him.  He looked better now, healthier.

"Fei…your eyes are really brown," he whispered.

"Of course they are!" I replied pulling my eyes to meet his blue ones that hinted at purple.

"I just always thought they were so dark they were black not this really deep shade of brown," he continued in his whisper.

His freckled cheeks started to pink and I realized I was being looked at by my friend…my gay friend.  That thought made me nervous until I realized that it was Duo.  It was not like I was going to get jumped by him or something right now.  He was just looking and admiring, was not I just doing the same thing to him. I was not admiring was I?  I mean, I was just looking at his face and how good he looks now and how his eyes are almost violet.  Then again, it is normal to look at people whom you associate with.  Quatre's eyes are blue, I think.  And Yuy's are brown right? He is Japanese so his should be brown like mine.  I have no clue what color Barton's are.  I can not even say that I have looked that much at Barton.  This is not good.  I can describe exactly what shade Duo's eyes are but I am not even sure about anyone else's.  I know Meilan's were brown but only because of assuming. I know I never really looked at her that way. 

"Um…Fei…I need you to close your eyes so I can put this eye-gunk on ya."

I needed to focus on the mission. I can figure it out later. 

***

I was sitting on a low branch of the willow tree in the garden of Quatre's sister's home.  The mission was over; the reports made.  I was no longer wearing that dress that made me someone I was not.  I could not believe how easy it was to be her, or how easily gentlemen would tell me political intrigues because I was a girl and would not understand them.  At times I wanted to laugh out loud at their stupidity.  I can still hear Duo laughing through my earpiece as he talked me out of killing the guy whose hand drifted a little low on my back as he danced with me.  

"Room for me up there, Pretty Lady?"

I nearly fell out of the tree at Duo's voice.  I, instead, threw a broken off piece of bark at him for his jeering me.  "Can a city-kid climb a tree?"

"Can't be much more difficult than climbing rusty fire escapes," he replied as he tried to find a place to grab onto to pull his self up.  He was not successful so I reached down to help.  When he grabbed my hand I started to pull him up so he could at least grab onto the branch.  He did so and swung himself up to sit in front of me.  I was leaning back against the trunk right where the branch forked out and he sat facing me.  It was late so I had a hard time even seeing him in the dark especially since he was wearing his black clothing.

"Thanks, I don' ev'n wanna know how ya got up here by yerself," he said.  He must be as tired as I am if he is reverting back to bad English.  I have definitely learned a lot of 'American' English from him recently, but mostly we had been speaking Chinese.  It seems that at one point in his life on the streets, Duo befriended an elderly Chinese couple who had a small shop in the city he lived in.  They barely spoke English so he tried teaching it too them to help in their dealings with customers.  In return, they fed him occasionally and he ended up learning more Chinese than they learned English.  He never told me what happened to them, but I assumed that they died.  Duo was not fluent in Chinese but he learns extremely fast and can converse with me effectively.  Some of his pronunciations are way off but he is improving.

"How ya doin'?"

"I survived," I replied.  "It should have been her doing that, not me."

"Nah, Fei.  It were meant ta be you.  Th' misshin jus reminded ya how much ya miss'er. Thas-all."

He was right, again.  I kept thinking that she should have been the one fighting but I actually could do it; I did do it.  I do not think that I would have been as effective of a warrior as I seem to be right now if she had not had lost her life.  It is funny how her death now is more important to me than her life.  It was her death that has made me what I am and able to fight and do things that I never thought I could.  My Nataku is truly stronger than I am if in her weakest moment, she had the most power over me.  

"We made a pretty good team t'night, huh?" He asked pulling me from thinking too deeply at this time of night. "We got way more intel than the others did.  We should do it ag'n, s'm-time."

"Only, next time, you will be the one in the dress!" I told him.

"Nah…Ya look too sexy in red, Fei and you've got tha legs to pull it off…." He replied before he got this look on his face that asked 'did I just say that out loud?' 

I would have dismissed what he said right away except for that look. He never lies but he does tease.  Normally, I would have assumed that he was just teasing me but I could not because of his embarrassment.  I just sat there gaping at him for an eternity as he floundered trying to get over his shame.

"I…er…umm…"  
  


"Duo, you're really tired.  I can hardly understand a word you're saying," I interrupt. I do not want to hear any more tonight. I am already confused as it is and I do not need it to be worse.  "Why don't you go back inside and go to bed.  I'll be in shortly because I'm tired, too."

"Okay... G'night, Fei," he mumbled as he smiled gratefully.  Right when I thought he was moving to jump down from the branch, he leaned in and kissed me right on the lips.  It was not much of a kiss, just briefly brushing his lips on mine but it was a kiss nonetheless.  His eyes were as wide as saucers as I can only assume mine were.  I did not know how to respond but I did not get a chance.  He jumped out of the tree like it was on fire and ran back to the house.  There was no way I could catch up to him; he was the fastest runner out of all us.  Then again, I was not sure if I wanted to catch up to him.  I was not sure what I would do if I did. I just was not sure about much of anything any more.

Owari.


End file.
